Coaches' Corner

AL MERRILL: Faced with the loss of four key men by graduation in June (Harwood, Smith, Ceely, and Gebhardt) along with the recent withdrawal from college by another (Vorse), it is evident that we have pretty much a complete rebuilding job to do.

Heading up the returning men from last year's team is Dick Taylor, a Nordic man, Frank Noel, four-event, and Don Peterson, a jumper. Needless to say, this year's team will be pretty much a complete revision, as the Alpine team is all gone and the Nordic strength split up by graduation losses. It will be a much younger team, in experience as well as age.

We are currently carrying a squad of 35 upperclassmen, from which we hope to fill the gaps. The fine spirit that was a most significant characteristic of last year's team still prevails, and the results of the open competitions the men have been in to date have been quite satisfying. There appears to be fairly good depth in all events.

In general, I would say that we should have a well-balanced team, but we face the problem now of further development in order to get a winning combination.

KARL MICHAEL: Having lost six seniors by graduation, including Captain John Graf, Bill Bahrenburg, Ernie Drosdick and Dave Beattie, four of our best middle-distance swimmers ever, as well as diver Bob Michael and backstroker Don McCree, we looked forward to a mediocre season. After our loss to Colgate, prospects were positively dim when a total of eight varsity lettermen failed to stay out for swimming for one reason or another.

However, I did not reckon with the drive, determination and spirit of the ten sophomores who were responsible last year for the first undefeated freshman swimming team in ten years. For the first time in memory, our varsity team now is composed of more sophomores than juniors and seniors combined. Captain Jack Daniels has given up breaststroke and butterfly swimming in favor of middle-distance freestyle swimming — a happy change for him and a fortuitous one. Junior Cai Raber is right behind Jack in the 220 and a fine sprinter on his performances of a year ago. Stu Summers, senior diver, is developing into the steady performer that we expected of him a year ago, while Pete Anderson has lived up to his earlier promise by establishing a new Dartmouth 200-yard backstroke record in his second dual meet of the season.

In addition to Raber, juniors Tom Travis and John Prior will be consistent point-winners in the sprint events as well as the relay, while Bill McClung, recently returned to the team, will add welcome strength in the breaststroke.

The talented group of sophomores is headed by Charlie Brown, the finest sprinter at Dartmouth since the immortal John Glover, and includes Bill Dunphy, Cleve Carney and Max Grumbacher; distance men Dave Cook, Al Hale and Max Ramenofsky; breaststroker Scott Piper, who established a new Dartmouth 200-yard breaststroke record against Colgate in his first varsity dual meet; backstroker John Benepe; butterflyer Don Baker; and diver Glenn Gemilli.

The freshman team, while generally weak in the freestyle events, boasts the fastest butterfly swimmer in Dartmouth history in the person of Terry Bentley, as well as a most promising backstroker in Jay Pierson. At present the leading freestylers are Bruce McCollum, younger brother of the 1957 captain, and Bob Rogers. Having lost the opening meet to the Colgate freshmen with a finger-tip loss in the final relay, the 1962 team is eagerly looking forward to prove itself.

Prospects look better than they did in November!